In journalism, it's worth noting, there's nothing more embarrassing than having a reporter from the outside come in and break news on your turf. ...A must read.
The Boston sports media, once considered one of the country's best and most influential press corps, is stumbling toward irrelevance. The national media not only seems to break more big Boston sports stories than the local press, but also often features more sophisticated analysis, especially when it comes to using advanced statistics. To put it bluntly, "The Lodge" — as Fred Toucher, cohost of the 98.5 The Sports Hub morning radio show, mockingly refers to the city's clubby, self-important media establishment — is clogged with stale reporters, crotchety columnists, and shameless blowhards. ... And we haven't even gotten to Dan Shaughnessy yet. ...
In a landscape where being loud and controversial is valued over being smart and insightful — and over doing the difficult work of investigative reporting — it's no surprise that the Boston sports media keeps getting beat on genuinely important news, like [Yahoo!'s Jeff] Passan's story [last July] about the Red Sox players meeting with ownership. ...
The message to the Lodge is clear: Change, or die the death of utter irrelevance.
Seigel names some good Boston writers, including WEEI.com's Alex Speier, who has continued to do extensive and highly relevant writing this winter. Seigel calls him "one of the city's few inventive sportswriters", someone "who specializes in incorporating advanced stats into articles meant for the average fan".
If the Globe, Herald, and ProJo disappeared tomorrow, my following of the Red Sox would barely miss a beat. Give me MLB.com, WEEI.com, ESPNBoston, and SoSH, and I'd be set.
7 comments:
...clogged with stale reporters, crotchety columnists, and shameless blowhards. ... And we haven't even gotten to Dan Shaughnessy yet.
Classic!
Dont forget joy of sox....
I really like the work that Tim Britton and Brian MacPherson do at the Providence Journal. Both of them know advanced stats and are good solid writers who keep up with all aspects of the Red Sox.
Mostly though I think the Red Sox are really well served by blogs, such as this one here. I'll take Speier, Britton, MacPherson, Marc Normandin at Over The Monster, and Joy of Sox and be quite happy, thank you very much.
I don't often check the ProJo to be honest with you. While I considered just noting the Globe and Herald, I did admittedly lump them in with the other papers.
JoS should not be mentioned alongside OtM, in my opinion. While they have several writers, I don't do 10% of the work they do.
The one good thing about the daily papers that I would miss is the random notes articles. There are still good tidbits of info (like injury updates) in those that do not warrant full stories. But as far as game stories and analysis, I don't need them at all.
JoS should not be mentioned alongside OtM, in my opinion. While they have several writers, I don't do 10% of the work they do.
But one of the many great things about blogs is different blogs do different things, and you get a more complete picture.
The downside is that most bloggers must rely on the MSM for access.
As a writer at Over The Monster I can tell you that Marc is the backbone of that site.
But even as someone who writes at a different site, I love this site. And Laura is right, this isn't the same as OTM. We do different things, and we do them, I like to think, very well.
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